Cloudy
by ChEmMiE
Summary: She looked up into the sky. It was very cloudy, indeed. - Something tragic has happened for our favorite team!


**So my friend gave me a prompt yesterday... I've never tried writing anything from a prompt before, but figured I'd give it a chance...**  
**Prompt was: "She looked up into the sky. It was very cloudy, indeed."**

**It's pretty short (about 1000 words).**

**(And a warning, contains character death)**

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**Cloudy**

She didn't look up from her hands, didn't even acknowledge that anyone else was there as the man slowly lowered himself down next to her on the stained wooden bench.

"Abs..." Still not looking away from the spiked bracelet on her wrist, the scientist pulled away from the outstretched hand before it could rest on her shoulder. She wasn't usually one to say no to physical contact, but right now... To be honest, she wasn't sure exactly _what _she was feeling at the moment.

"At least put on your coat. It's gonna start raining." She ignored the black coat he held out for her and instead looked up into the sky. It was very cloudy, indeed. Her body visible shivered as she finally registered the chilly sting of the cold autumn wind, but she didn't feel it.

She felt numb.

"What, so I don't get sick too?" She finally allowed her gaze to turn towards the man sitting next to her, her eyes burning with a rage she knew he wasn't to blame for.

"Yes." The combination of sadness and compassion in the steely blue orbs force her to once more tear her gaze away, resting it on the blue of cars and trucks driving past them on the street. But without really seeing any of it.

"Well maybe I just don't care." The anger from before is gone from her voice, in stead replaced with a flat monotone, completely devoid of any emotion.

"She wouldn't want you to catch a cold, Abs. Let alone pneumonia."

"Well it doesn't really matter anymore, does it?" This time her entire body is turned towards the single other occupant of the bench. "Because she's gone!" She was yelling now, but neither of them were taken aback by it. For a while they just stared at each other, no sound except that of the wind and the ever-present traffic.

Once more the anger slipped from her face, this time to give way for the complete unadulterated sadness in both her eyes and her voice.

"Oh, Gibbs..." As soon as the first tear escaped her glassy eyes, slowly following the trail left from so many other tears cried that day, he held out his arms for her.

"C'mere." She was buried in his embrace before he even had a chance to see her move, her tears falling much faster than the raindrops that had slowly started falling from the dark clouds above them.

"She can't be dead, Gibbs. She just can't!" The marine clenched his eyes shut as he tightened his grip on the trembling woman in his arms, glad she wasn't able to see the the tears he'd been unable to keep out of his own eyes.

Because he needed to be strong for her. For all of them.

"I know, Abby." He doubted she even heard his softly spoken words, too caught up in once more allowing the desperate sobs to take over her body.

"I mean she's _Ziva_! She's our kick-ass ninja!" Gibbs gently rocked her back and forth, running a soothing hand over her loose hair. Despite having heard all of this already, and not only from Abby, he knew she needed to get it out again. "She's been shot at and tortured and blown up and... and..."

"Shhh..." He wasn't trying to shush her, just doing his best at calming her down. Turning her head, she buried it so deep into Gibbs' comforting embrace that he could barely make out her muffled words.

"It just isn't right, Gibbs. She's supposed to be, like, superwoman or something. She can survive _everything_."

"She's only human, like the rest of us, Abs." She pulled away from him, the exasperated look in her eyes made all the more prominent by her now soaked through hair and clothes. Because it wasn't just raining anymore, it was pouring.

"No she's not! Or well, she _is,_ I suppose..." Her eyes cast downward, she started fiddling with the hem of her short skirt. "But, she's supposed to finally get her happily ever after. Or at least go down in a blaze of glory, protecting the innocent, like she's always done..." She sniffled, the volume of her voice reduced to a mere whisper that Gibbs could barely manage to make out over the thundering sound of the heavy raindrops.

"But... food poisoning, Gibbs?" When she turned her head back towards him, her eyes were big and wide, begging him to tell her that it was all just some horrible nightmare.

And how he wished he could.

There wasn't even anyone to blame. No one to hunt down and get revenge on. No one to focus all their anger on.

So he didn't say anything, just once more opened her arms for Abby, who willingly returned to his strong embrace. And if she could tell the few tears apart from the raindrops on his cheeks, she didn't point it out.

"It'll be okay, Abby. We'll all be okay."

"But I miss her." She sounded so broken that Gibbs' heart shattered even more.

"I know, Abby. I miss her too." He placed a kiss on top of her wet locks, but he knew it would fix anything. They had all lost so many people close to them, and this time there wasn't even anyone to focus all their anger and hate towards. "But we'll get through this. With each other. She wouldn't want anything else than that." The woman in his arms sniffled and he felt her head give a small nod. But still he knew it would be a very long time before any of them would recover from this.

"I'm _never_ eating pizza again. Ever." The team leader allowed a tiny smile to form on his lips.

He doubted any of them would.

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**Well, I hope this was okay... As I said, I've never written prompts before!**  
**So I would absolutely LOVE IT if you let me know what you think! :D**

**Also, there's a link to a NCIS petition on my profile that Soph (anonymous033) and I started... Please, check it out! And if you agree with us, feel free to sign it!**


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